Despite the implementation of control measures (preventive dog vaccination), rabies has become endemic in Croatia, with red foxes being the main reservoir species. Oral rabies vaccination (ORV) ...campaigns supported by the European Commission have been conducted twice a year since the spring of 2011. The first campaigns were limited to the northern and eastern parts of the country, and from the autumn of 2012, the program was extended to the entire country. The Lysvulpen vaccine containing the SAD Bern strain was used for ORV. Following the vaccination campaigns, the number of rabies cases decreased, and the last positive case was recorded in February 2014. The bait uptake ranged from 24.86% to 84.62% and the immunisation rate from 11.24% to 35.64%.
In this paper, we examine whether it is possible to improve democracy by encouraging ordinary citizens to participate in political decision-making and if participation in deliberative institutions ...can make citizens more competent decision-makers. By using qualitative data, we analyze the discussion from the Belgrade citizens’ assembly (CA) focused on the topic of expanding the pedestrian zone in the city center. The CA was organized in Serbia for the first time, as part of a research project aimed at promoting and advancing innovative democratic practices in the Western Balkans. The goal was to encourage the involvement of citizens in discussions of public interest. Our hypothesis was that, through the process of participation and deliberation in CA, ordinary citizens can make reasonable and informed choices, increase their knowledge of the issue discussed, and become more motivated to participate in political decision-making on the local level. Our qualitative content analysis suggests that deliberation had a positive impact on participants’ knowledge of the chosen topic of the assembly. It also shows that citizens used exhaustive explanations rather than brief statements, could differentiate the good arguments from the bad, and more often appealed to general rather than private interests. Participants in the assembly reported a significant increase in interest in political decision-making that affects their lives, as well as a sense of being informed about politics. Finally, we wanted to draw attention to the challenges and open questions that remain, namely those that concern the impact of a deliberative body on political decision-making in the real world.
The aim of this paper was to evaluate the understanding of partner violence from the perspective of female victims. This study addresses intimate partner violence from a qualitative paradigm and a ...social constructivist approach. Data was collected from interviews with 15 female victims of violence, which was used as the basis for thematic analysis. In the contents of the subjects’ narratives, four core themes and eight sub-themes stood out. The core themes were: incident-based violence, life in the world of the perpetrator, causes of the violent behavior and justification for it, and victims taking responsibility for the violence. The results of the analysis showed that the violence experienced by these victims could not be reduced to isolated incidents. Still, it was a process that included situations and behaviors that were not subject to punishment, which kept the victim in constant fear, controlled her behavior, and made her a subordinate perpetrator. In contrast, most explanations given (by the victims) for the violent behavior had the function of justifying the perpetrators’ behavior and attributing responsibility to other agents – alcohol, mental illness, problems in the family of origin, or an external source of frustration. In certain cases, the women felt that they could be responsible for their own victimization as victims of violence. The results of the research indicate that intimate partner violence should be considered as a crime against identity and freedom, and that persons working with victims of violence should aim to deconstruct the beliefs that lead victims to find excuses for violent partner behavior, as well as to deconstruct beliefs that lead them to feel responsible for their victimization.
Surface modification of nanocrystalline TiO2 particles (45 Å) with bidentate benzene derivatives, that is, 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, ...3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, and catechol was found to alter optical properties of nanoparticles. The formation of the inner-sphere charge transfer (CT) complexes results in a red shift of the semiconductor absorption compared to unmodified nanocrystallites. The binding structures were investigated by using FTIR spectroscopy. The investigated ligands have the optimal geometry for chelating surface Ti atoms, resulting in ring coordination complexes (catecholate or salycilate type of binuclear bidentate binding), thus restoring six-coordinated octahedral geometry of surface Ti atoms. From the Benesi−Hildebrand plot, the stability constants at pH 2 of the order 103 M−1 have been determined.
In her book Democracy and Truth: The Conflict between Political and Epistemic Virtues, Snježana Prijić Samaržija advocates that a purely procedural justification which defines the authority and ...legitimacy of democracy only in relation to the fairness of the procedure itself is not enough for a full justification of democracy. Some epistemic values should also be included. This epistemic quality of democracy depends on the quality of the decisions that the democratic procedures produce. In that sense, the author is advocating a hybrid theory that secures harmony between political and epistemic values, favoring deliberative procedure for this purpose, and thus promotes equal respect for both democratic values. In doing so, she is advocating the specific type of division of epistemic labor that I will attempt to critically re-examine here, as well as to bring into question the privileged role of the experts in democratic decision-making.
Fire detectors present very important elements in fire protection systems. Their correct and precise installation present very important task in fire protection. Very often, there are problems ...related to the number of installed fire detectors and their locations and arrangement in the object. There are several standards that deal with fire detectors installations and arrangement. In some cases, these standards have similar rules, but in others, they have different rules. Also, some of standards have very detail rules and explanations about fire detectors installation and arrangement in some cases, while other standards are not very detail or they don't deal with that problems at all. One of the very interested cases, marked in all standards as a special case for installation of fire detectors is a stairs case. This paper was written to show rules in different valid standards related to installation and arrangement of fire detectors in the case of stairs and computer simulation of fire detectors at stairs.
The surface modification of nanocrystalline TiO2 particles (45 Å) with catecholate-type ligands having different electron donating/electron withdrawing substituent groups, specifically ...3-methylcatechol, 4-methylcatechol, 3-methoxycatechol, 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde and 4-nitrocatechol, was found to alter the optical properties of nanoparticles in a similar way to catechol. The formation of the inner-sphere charge-transfer (CT) complexes results in a red shift of the semiconductor absorption compared to unmodified nanocrystallites and a reduction of the effective band gap, being slightly less pronounced in the case of electron withdrawing substituents. The investigated ligands have the optimal geometry for binding to surface Ti atoms, resulting in ring coordination complexes of the catecholate type (binuclear bidentate binding-bridging) thus restoring six-coordinated octahedral geometry of surface Ti atoms. From the absorption measurements (Benesi-Hildebrand plot), the stability constants in methanol/water = 90/10 solutions at pH 2 in the order of 10(3) M(-1) have been determined. The binding structures were investigated by using FTIR spectroscopy. Thermal stability of CT-complexes was investigated by using TG/DSC/MS analysis. Quantum chemical calculations on model systems using density functional theory (DFT) were performed to obtain the vibrational frequencies of charge transfer complexes, and the calculated values were compared with the experimental data.
Echinococcus multilocularis
has been spreading through Europe but has not yet been reported in Croatia. We report the results of a surveillance programme to detect
E. multilocularis
in red foxes (
...Vulpes vulpes)
in different parts of Croatia. PCR-based screening of faecal samples from 238 red foxes in 2015 and 150 in 2016 indicate prevalences of 7.5% in 2015 and 6.6% in 2016 (overall 7.2%, CI 4.9 to 10.3). Positive samples were confirmed by sequencing parts of the
nad1
gene and the gene encoding mitochondrial 12S rRNA. Geographic locations of all examined and positive cases were mapped to provide data on the distribution of
E. multilocularis
. Our results provide the first detection of
E. multilocularis
in Croatia and extend the southern boundary of this parasite’s endemic area.
Fire presents almost everyday occurrence in people's life and work. The fight against fire must be fast and effective because consequences can be inconceivable, in the sense of human lives and ...material properties. Fire can occur everywhere: in the residential building, in factory, in hospital, in parking garage, in market, in school, anywhere where are people and their activities. Fire also can occur as natural disaster. One of ways how to fight against fire is to detect fire at early stage, as fast as possible. For that purpose, fire detectors are designed. This paper was written to show usage of line heat detectors in fire protection, their arrangement in objects related to different valid standards and computer simulation of line heat detectors in parking garages.
Smart cities use digital technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, or open data in order to overcome limitations of traditional representation and exchange of geospatial data. This ...concept ensures a significant increase in the use of data to establish new services that contribute to better sustainable development and monitoring of all phenomena that occur in urban areas. The use of the modern geoinformation technologies, such as sensors for collecting different geospatial and related data, requires adequate storage options for further data analysis. In this paper, we suggest the biG dAta sMart cIty maNagEment SyStem (GAMINESS) that is based on the Apache Spark big data framework. The model of the GAMINESS management system is based on the principles of the big data modeling, which differs greatly from standard databases. This approach provides the ability to store and manage huge amounts of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data in real time. System performance is increasing to a higher level by using the process parallelization explained through the five V principles of the big data paradigm. The existing solutions based on the five V principles are focused only on the data visualization, not the data themselves. Such solutions are often limited by different storage mechanisms and by the ability to perform complex analyses on large amounts of data with expected performance. The GAMINESS management system overcomes these disadvantages by conversion of smart city data to a big data structure without limitations related to data formats or use standards. The suggested model contains two components: a geospatial component and a sensor component that are based on the CityGML and the SensorThings standards. The developed model has the ability to exchange data regardless of the used standard or the data format into proposed Apache Spark data framework schema. The verification of the proposed model is done within the case study for the part of the city of Novi Sad.
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